I Stabbed My Best Friend
by Aren-Kae
Summary: Set after season three episode one, Sari has to confront the guilt that torments her about stabbing her best friend, Bumblebee, through the chest. One-shot


"I Stabbed My Best Friend" co-authored by TehMarishal and Aren-Kae.

Sari lay there quietly on the bed, giving her father's hand a gentle squeeze. She had already forgiven him completely for not telling her that she was half Cybertronian. Although she had to admit that it gave her some comfort to know that she came from a protoform; she wasn't built with parts from Megatron (ew!).

Her father had fallen asleep, having been with her ever since she woke up. He was snoring softly, and didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon.

Just as Sari was about to drift off herself she heard the sound of soft, clanking footsteps. She slowly sat up to see who was coming, and then she saw it was Bumblebee.

"Hey there, Sari," he said. "How're you feeling?"

"Bumblebee!" she exclaimed. "I'm doing okay--hey are you alright?" Sari suddenly felt rather sheepish and even a little guilty talking to him, after what happened.

"I'll be fine, the doc-bot patched me up okay," Bumblebee said, walking over to stand beside the bed. "But um... I'm afraid I have some bad news." He handed held out his hand, and her key rested in his palm. "This doesn't seem to work anymore."

Sari gingerly took the key from the bot's hand, rubbing her fingers along the serrated edges. "Oh." She felt her lower lip begin to tremble, and took a deep breath to calm herself. _My fault. I can't believe I did that._ "So I can't help you guys if you get hurt anymore," she mumbled.

"Hey it's not your fault," Bumblebee said. "I mean, you used your key to help save me, right?"

"Yeah but Ratchet told me to wait," Sari said, clenching the key tightly in her fist. "You saw what happened, I almost _killed_ you out there! And I could have destroyed at least half the city!" She turned away and hung her head.

A weight descended on one of her shoulders, metal fingers rubbing tension-spots that were never there before her upgrade. "Hey, but everything turned out alright, didn't it? Megatron and that creaky rust-coils Starscream are going to be joyriding for a long time out there." Sari gave no response other than a moody shake of her head. "Hey, and _I'm_ okay, too. So are you."

"But I almost _killed_ you..."

"Look we all make mistakes, even the best of us," Bumblebee said, placing a hand on his chest plate. Sari glanced at him, raising an eyebrow slightly. "And look, at least you didn't drop anything on Prime. Back in my Academy days, I kept knocking over everything in sight--it seemed like I couldn't do anything right. How do I think I got the name 'Bumblebee' in the first place?"

"You're yellow," she mumbled. "And black."

Bumblebee made a sound that sounded so much like a snort to her ears that she turned around just enough to see him out of the corner of her eye.

"No," Bumblebee said, "it's because I bumbled a lot, so to speak." The yellow bot's cheeks seemed to turn slightly red and his mouth formed a sheepish smile. "The Sarge at the Academy was the one who gave me my name... he said I was nothing but a bumbler. Although I did knock down a whole big stack of oil canisters on top of him, and I also had a little accident where my stingers made a large building fall down back on Cybertron...."

Sari giggled a little bit, even if it felt like the wrong moment to do so. She turned around all the way, releasing her father's hand so she could hug Bumblebee around the neck. "I'm really sorry," she said. After a moment, she said, softer than before, "Is Ratchet mad at me?"

"Why would he be mad at you?" Bumblebee asked with a puzzled look.

"Because I didn't listen to him, and I ignored his advice, and I even made him feel useless by using that key so much," Sari said with a sigh. "And now it's useless."

"Ratchet's not mad at you, he just wants you to get better," Bumblebee said. "From what I understand, he stood up for you today and saved your life."

"Yeah he did," Sari said. "I owe him for making sure I didn't destroy the city, and for fixing me up."

"Well that too," Bumblebee said, as though he was referring to something else.

Sari raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" she asked, attempting to press the matter.

"Oh nothing!" Bumblebee said, throwing his hands in the air dismissively and then lowering them again. "But look, all's well now. You're safe, we're all safe, and now we just have to focus on defeating those lousy Decepticons--and first we need to get work back to Cybertron about the spy... somehow."

Sari wanted to ask about that other thing, but came up with the answer on her own. Everybody had been saving her so much that maybe they were tired of it and were complaining about it behind her back and Bumblebee was only trying to make her feel better. The possibility that she'd become a liability was almost too much, but she had to keep a straight face.

She wouldn't be helpless ever, ever again.

"I think I'm ready to go and get something to eat," she said, and slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Bumblebee moved to help her but she waved him off. "I'm fine," she said, wanting to show that she could move around without being helped. Then she carefully hopped off the edge of the bed, landing on the floor. She paused for a moment, glancing back up at the bed to make sure she hadn't disturbed her father. He was still sound asleep, so she turned her attention back to Bumblebee.

"Since they have to rebuild the Burger Bot, I guess I'll just have to go somewhere else," Sari said. "Let's say we go to Sumdac Tower? I can just make a sandwich or something."

"Sure," Bumblebee said, and transformed into a car, opening the door for her. "Hop in, I'll take you."

Sari smiled, and climbed inside and fastened her seat belt. The interior felt just a bit smaller than it had all the other times she'd been inside him, mostly because she was taller now than she had been the last time she rode inside him.

Bumblebee started his engine and rolled on out of the base, speeding down the street toward Sumdac Tower.

_I'll never hurt any of my friends again,_ Sari thought as she leaned back in the seat and enjoyed the ride. _And I'll never be useless again, either._

**The End**


End file.
